Liblady495

Week 8: Technology. What are some of the technological advances that happened during your childhood? What types of technology to you enjoy using today, and which do you avoid?

What is technology? The idea is moving forward. I could talk about computers and Internet and write volumes. In 60+ years I have seen a lot of things come and go. Today I am going to concentrate on how one specific item has changed over the years.

I think we had a phone of some kind in the first house we lived in, but I don’t remember it at all. When I was about 7 years old we moved about 20 miles away to a small town, close to the center of the state of Kansas and just a few miles south of Nebraska. This house had a crank telephone, it was wooden with the shelf and the black mouth and ear piece. It was a party line, and our ring was 3 longs and a short.

By the timeI got to be a teenager, the phone company had up graded us to a black dial phone, which hung on the wall. We were still on a party line, and there was a timer on the phone. You could stay on the line for 15 minutes, and there would be a beep about 30 seconds, before you would be cut off. If you weren’t finished, you would have to call them back to continue the conversation. This did not allow longwinded teenage conversations. Before we moved in 1965, the phone company had again upgraded and we had a party line. Photo from http://www.oldphoneworks.com/554-black.html.

“I don’t have an answering machine.” I did eventually get a cordless with an answering machine.

In 2001 I took the plunge and got my first cell phone. I still have my land phone with an answering machine, and a cell phone. I do not have all the extras: call forwarding, caller ID, etc.

What types of technology to you enjoy using today, and which do you avoid?

I still have a landline with a cordless phone, and a cell phone. I have not moved up to the Smart phone, just not ready to take the leap. I don’t want the camera on my cell phone, and I do not have texting. I do not use my computer for this kind of communication either. Maybe someday.

There are so many other aspects of technology but you can go on, and on, and on.